Ahh, South Dakota Warm Showers

8/11 - Wall (54 miles)
8/12 - Hayes (84 miles)
8/13 - Pierre (34 miles)
8/14 - Blunt (24 miles)
8/15 - Redfield (102 mi)

After our energizing 2 day rest at Rapid City's beautiful public library, we were on the road again heading east toward the Badlands. Unfortunately, the loud motorcycles were migrating back home too and so we had a few more days of racing hogs and choppers. One of the last true temporary biker towns was Wall, home of "Wall Drug". Apparently, Wall Drug was supposed to be the largest drugstore in the world and so, being good tourists... and remembering some pretty big Walgreens out there, they reeled us in. "Drugstore" isn't the world I'd use to describe Wall Drug, but rather "sprawling junk-hawking tourist trap". I was expecting a huge pharmacy... rows and rows of over the counter cough syrup, but no -- just T-shirts and ice cream. Unfortunately, it was so hot outside that we were trapped there most of the day.

We camped that night just outside of town under State hwy. 21 (our new favorite FREE camping sites are the huge drainage pipes which pass under the highway). The next few days were very windy and hot. We basically gave up riding during the day and would pull over into the cow pastures, climb the fence and pitch our tent under a tree for the afternoon. Our tent required constant rotation to stay in the shade of the very scant & meager trees. In fact there really weren't any trees... just miles and miles of grazing land and cracked plains.

Pierre, SD (pronounced "pier" by the locals despite what your 5th grade teacher told you) was home of the best "warm shower" of our entire trip. warmshowers.com is a website that we found out about in which bicycle tourers can contact and potentially rest & shower in the homes of fellow bicycle enthusiasts. The options range from camping in the back yard or staying in the guest bedroom. There were actually several households to conact in Pierre and so of course we choose the one which sounded the most homey... and we TOTALLY scored w/the Lee's.

Scott showering at the Chamber of Commerce in Pierre:














Tom and Ellen had kids which had grown up and left the nest and so it was as if we were their adopted children for a night. We had a gourmet meal and then toured the Missouri river on their Pontoon boat. Unfortunately, Scott enjoyed too many coca-colas on the boat and therefore had to endure the embarressing but relieving act of peeing off the side of their boat. The river up there is much different than down in MO. It's actually a dammed lake. 2 minutes from the dock in Pierre we were in some remote wilderness. We were expecting a schlog through over-developed riversides, but the majority of riverbanks were undeveloped. We weren't quite convinced that this was on purpose, but rather testimony to how many folks live in SD. We polished the night off with a big pork-out-fest at the local ice cream shop (Zesto's!) which our hosts insisted on treating us. This is getting a little detail oriented... We just wanted everyone out there who has never visited SD to get a glimpse of the land and locals. The land is a little boring, but the people are AWESOME.